Review: Public views of biotechnology

Biotechnology in Public: A Review of Recent Research edited by John Durant, Science Museum, pp 201, £16.95

How can we explain the public unease about biotechnology? It has been tempting to attribute the problem to public ignorance, misunderstanding or irrationality. Educators could solve it by making scientific knowledge more accessible, enlightening the public with a truly scientific, rational understanding. This collection of essays, partly based upon recent research, both supports and challenges this view.

A leading proponent of biotechnology, Mark Cantley of the European Commission, hints at motives that may lead its critics to make self-interested, rather than objective arguments. He says: 'There is a temptation also for the (public) interest groups to follow and profit from the excited state of public opinion, rather than seek to educate and lead it in a 'rational' direction, and who is entitled to claim a monopoly on the definition of rationality?' There might ...

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